Hours after the Principal Sessions court in Thalassery rejected the anticipatory bail plea of CPI-M leader and former Kannur district panchayat president PP Divya in the case of abetment to suicide of Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Naveen Babu, she was taken into custody by the Kerala police on Tuesday.

A police team took Divya into custody at Kannapuram, Kannur while she was on the way to surrender to the police and took her to the Kannur Crime Branch office for questioning. She will undergo a medical examination before being presented in court.

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After the court rejected her anticipatory bail application, CPI-M leadership reportedly urged her to surrender immediately. Following this directive, Divya informed the police officers that she was prepared to surrender. She had told the police she was on her way to surrender, leading them to take her into custody at Kannapuram in Kannur. There has been criticism that the police have taken Divya into custody following an understanding between her and the police

Earlier, on Tuesday, the Principal Sessions court in Thalassery rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the CPI-M who has been booked for abetment to suicide of Naveen Babu. Dismissing her anticipatory bail plea, the court said that “the circumstances themselves disentitle her to the relief of pre-arrest bail.”The court observed that the act of the petitioner is a pre-planned and premeditated one with the sole intention of insulting and humiliating a highly reputed, high-ranking government official.

“As submitted by the learned public prosecutor, if such a person is granted the relief of pre-arrest bail, definitely it may give a wrong message to the society,” the court said.

Following the court’s rejection, Naveen’s wife, Manjusha, who works as the Konni Tahsildar, called for Divya’s arrest. “The person who destroyed our lives must be arrested,” she told the media, marking her first statement since Naveen’s death. She said the district Collector should have intervened when Divya spoke at the farewell function organised by the revenue department staff.The video recording also should have been prevented,she added

The Kannur ADM was found dead at his official residence in Pallikkunnu, Kannur, on October 15 morning. He allegedly took his life after facing public humiliation and corruption accusations made by PP Divya, then the Kannur District Panchayat president, at the farewell meeting on October 14. She had accused him of intentionally delaying the issuance of a NOC to Prasanthan to start a petrol pump at Chengalai in Kannur